True Believers Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of True Believers

Wesley Dean Theroux is the former leader of a cult numbering approximately 101 members. Having slain 88 members of the cult in a mass-suicide with Seconal-laced Jell-O, Theroux saved the last 11 cultists, brainwashing them into becoming his "apostles", 11 fanatics programmed to kill on his command.
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Now, 10 years later, Theroux sits on California's Death Row, awaiting execution for the murders of the 88 cultists, as well as 17 innocent people connected to his trial. But W.D. Theroux is not quite done wreaking misery upon the world.

Operating from his cell and using a hidden cellular modem in his laptop computer, Theroux arranges for his sperm to be artificially inseminated into an unwitting recipient, Gwen Sullivan, wife of vice presidential candidate Senator William Sullivan.

Soon, Theroux's six remaining apostles begin to insinuate themselves into the Sullivan household. As soon as Gwen's pregnancy begins to progress, they spring into action, abducting her to their compound.

Using his cellular modem, Theroux also begins a calculated manipulation of the media, convincing the police and the general public of William Sullivan's alcoholism and spousal abuse.

Now, Sullivan and Vance Allatore, a former prosecutor who suffered a nervous breakdown and now hears the voice of God, must battle a disbelieving public, a suspicious police force, and six crazed cultists to rescue Gwen and her child from the clutches of a maniac who intends to make his last act on Earth the abject subjugation of one of America's most powerful families.